Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

Python Python Collections (2016, retired 2019) Dictionaries Word Count

Posted by Charles Loder
Charles Loder
17,541 Points

Word_count Challenge

This is the error I receive "Bummer: Hmm, didn't get the expected output. Be sure you're lowercasing the string and splitting on all whitespace!"

Here is my code:

wordcount.py 
# E.g. word_count("I do not like it Sam I Am") gets back a dictionary like:
# {'i': 2, 'do': 1, 'it': 1, 'sam': 1, 'like': 1, 'not': 1, 'am': 1}
# Lowercase the string to make it easier.
def word_count (str):
    d = {}
    for word in str.lower().split(" "):
        if not word in d:
            d[word] = 1
        else:
            d[word] += 1
    return d

when I run:

print(word_count("I do not like it Sam I Am"))

I get 

'do': 1, 'like': 1, 'sam': 1, 'i': 2, 'am': 1, 'it': 1, 'not': 1}

I'm missing something here...

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,236 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,236 Points

The challenges test your code with more complex data than shown in sample. The issue is hinted in the message "Bummer: Hmm, didn't get the expected output. Be sure you're lowercasing the string and splitting on all whitespace!"

To split on "all whitespace", leave the argument to "split" empty. Providing a space causes it to split only on individual spaces.

Charles Loder
Charles Loder
17,541 Points

Thanks! I was thinking in JavaScript where String.split() separates every character. Guess I should have read the docs more closely...

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,236 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,236 Points

Knowing other languages can pose extra challenges when learning a new one. :wink: